Florida_cruisers

I booked a grand suite, our first. It would be awesome if we got upgraded to the owner’s suite 🙏. 

Edit: we have cabin 1554 and the balcony looks bigger on the deck plans than the owner’s suites 1560 and 1568. So maybe what we have is better. 

Thank you all. It’s interesting how the travel industry play these shuffling games. It’s a business after all. 

32 minutes ago, Big_G said:

If you're talking about your May Jewel of the Seas, I just checked my go to on-line cruise broker and they have insides available on every sailing plus other categories.

For May 29, 2019? I don’t see it and I’ve looked in many cruise travel sites.... 

13 minutes ago, rimmit said:

Just like an airline there is a small amount of overbooking as well.   

And what happens if no one cancels? Airlines offer incentives for people to take alternate flights. I can’t imagine cruiselines doing that, especially when other travel arrangements are involved (airfare, hotel). This is for a Mediterranean cruise. 

My friend wants to join our upcoming cruise and I looked on RCL and various other travel websites, there’s no cabins available. She then called the cruise line and they “found” a cabin for her somehow, so she booked a guarantee inside cabin on a sold out sailing where there’s only ONE suite left. There are no other cabins left in the whole ship. What do you think RCL will do? Upgrade someone else and give her their cabin? Certainly I wouldn’t expect them to give her the suite that’s going for $8k when she booked a guarantee inside, right? 

14 minutes ago, lola2013 said:

Absolutely not laughing; I love a plan!  My friend Linda (she'll be on JOTS) and I are looking for a TA on the new Princess ship in November, 2021.  

Is Bangkok one of your stops in Thailand?  I loved it there...the humidity not so much, but still a fascinating city.

You know I am a planner. I have the next 2 years’ trips planned. 

We are stopping in Dubai for a day, Bangkok for 2.5 days and Phuket for 3.5 days. 

Mid the humidity worse than Florida?

49 minutes ago, lola2013 said:

You will love Equinox!  Will you be doing that short cruise before I see you on JOTS in May?  I will want to hear your thoughts!

FYI, I think it's just EDGE that is priced outrageously.  The other itineraries we've done (twice on Equinox; one Reflection; one Solstice) seem right in line pricewise with other lines.

Enjoy...she's a beauty!

Don’t fall off your chair laughing but this cruise I booked it for Jan 2021 🤣. I have other trips scheduled before then and it was the only time I could do it. 

We are set to get to Thailand next week, two months before the Greek cruise. 

On 3/6/2019 at 12:38 PM, lola2013 said:

Please know that our first choice for the trip would have been Celebrity, but they moved quite a few of their ships out of the Med this season which is why we switched to RCCL.   The new EDGE is doing an itinerary similar to what we will be doing on JOTS, but it's more than double the price!

With over 10 cruise on RCL, 1 in Carnival (first time cruiser - never again) always wanted to sail in Celebrity but I could never justify their prices. I often find them twice as much for the same itinerary as RCL. But I am still curious so I recently booked the Equinox for 2 nights out of Ft. Lauderdale. The price was too good to pass up for a quick getaway trial. 

38 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

You can confirm it yourself by installing the app see that Jewel is NOT listed. CSRs handing out bogus info is common.

I couldn’t because what the RCL employee said is that the Jewel has a different app. I don’t know the name of the app he was referring to. That’s the reason why I came to this board to see if anyone knew what that app could be. 

I find it strange someone from the cruise line would say there’s an app for the Jewel but no one else seems to confirm it. 

A friend of mine currently on the Mariner asked the concierge and he said that although the Royal app is not functional on the Jewel just yet, they do have another app for the Jewel. Unfortunately my friend doesn’t have the name of the app as the concierge didn’t say. Does anyone know? 

We will be on the Jewel in May. 

3 minutes ago, londongal796 said:

Just a note to say that most European cruises are a mixture of ages, depending on the time of year and itinerary. Typically you find a higher number of 'seniors' on longer cruise itineraries (more than 7-8 nights) and, personally, I found the highest percentage to be on longer cruise itineraries in the Caribbean. The transatlantics we have done have been similarly skewed more. However, personally, the European cruises we've done have had the highest percentage of people in their 30s and 40s. Early September is when all of the kids have just gone back to school in Europe so perhaps fewer people with children sailed then? Apart from that, there's definitely not an overabundance of older passengers on the cruises (anymore than all cruises) -- what there tends to be though in Europe outside of the summer months is a much lower percentage of children. There are regulations and fines for taking children out of school in the UK and other parts of Europe. This means very few families with school-age children can travel outside of the 6 week summer break and other school breaks.

You are absolutely right, our cruise was 13 nights. 

We did a similar cruise a while back in September, while the kids were still in school, which I suspect it would be the same for you. I had just turned 30 and DH was in his mid 30s, we were part of the youngest adults on the ship. They were a few kids, very just a handful. The guests were 75% seniors. I think out of all the cruises we’ve been on it was the oldest crowd we had encountered. It was just find as it made it for a very civil and quiet cruise. I remember many people doting on our baby as it reminded them of their grandchildren back home. 

We booked private excursions and they turned out great. I don’t remember the tour operators as this was 11 years ago. 

This sailing was also the only time I recall going through seas in any cruise we have ever gone on. The captain announced it in advance and if happened in the evening after dinner. I think it was the passage from the UK to the other side of Europe that always less than smooth seas. 

10 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

No app yet for Jewel. Royal IQ is being phased out, and is only on Quantum ships now. 

So Royal IQ is on its way out and being replaced with the Royal app?

What’s the difference? Are they both hosted by Royal Caribbean?

As of today the Royal app doesn’t have functionality on the Jewel, which is our next cruise in May. Is our next best option the Royal IQ app? 

9 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Laura thinks she pays $49 for a blow dry and flat iron.  She had a lot of hair.

 

 

Thank you, that’s very reasonable considering is a ship salon. 

How much would it cost at the ship’s salon to just get your hair blow dried? It will be already washed and no need for a cut or fancy style. 

Online it shows $79 but it says shampoo/cut and blow dry. I only need the blow dry. 

The only reason why I dont want to do it myself is because my hair requires a lot of heat from the blow dryer to straighten my curls and in a cabin I am afraid the fire alarm could trigger. 

I called and they said sometime this April. 

On 11/4/2018 at 7:51 AM, LXA350 said:

If you are looking int Japan itinararies it's better to go for Celebrity who offer extensive Japan sailings, whereas RCCL only offers shorter cruises out of China aimed for the local market interested in shorter cruises with one or two stops in Japan per cruise at max. As far as I know the 2020 cruises at least until spring are already available for booking at Celebrity which include a extended sailing in march or april and possibly more

Celebrity sails to Asia when school is still in session while RCL sails in the summer time. For the next few years we are restricted to only school holidays. 

Anyone know yet? 

12 hours ago, JohninDC said:

How many ships in port on the same day?  What time do you arrive compared to the others?  

There will be one other ship there at the time we dock, from Oceania. Between both ships a total of 3189 people. 

I would like to plan a group picture for our family and friends that will be accompanying us on our next Mediterranean cruise. The cruise will stop at several ports in Greece: Athens, Mykonos, Santorini, Crete and Rhodes. The group will be around 18 people in total, so quite a few. 

Originally I was invisioning the Oia village in Santorini with the backdrop of the sea and the beautiful white buildings and their blue domes. Now I am wondering with the amount of people going there from our cruise if that area will be too crowded to take a proper picture. I’ve never been there, what do you think? Also, can you recommend another port location if this one won’t work? We are already planning on taking a group picture on the ship as well but would like one at one if the scenic spots in Greece. 

Thanks in advance! 

I used GenVisa as well. Easy and had no issues. 

Is it worth the extra cost? 

For the past few years we have been going to local resorts (We are lucky to live in a city and state that has highly rated hotels with amazing entertainment) where they offer package deals for $300-500 per couple that includes a 3-5 dinner, the party celebration, the room and breakfast the next day. This might be a better deal than a cruise. 

I am very adamant about cruising to the same places over and over when there so much in this works to explorer. So I might rather spend the cruise time and money going to new places. My neighbor wants to go on a NYE cruise but she’s not an explorer, she just likes to be in a ship because she’s afraid to fly and the unknown. 

You can buy I remember that the power outlet was not close to any mirrors.